The Kano State Hisbah Board has arrested seven suspected cross-dressers during a late-night raid on a popular social joint in the city centre.
The suspects were apprehended following an intelligence-led operation indicating alleged illicit activities at the establishment located along Zoo Road, Kano.
Deputy Commander General of the Hisbah Board, Sheikh Mujahid Aminudeen Abubakar, who confirmed the arrests, said all the suspects are teenagers below the age of 23. He added that the joint would soon be sealed off.
Sheikh Mujahid disclosed that preliminary investigations showed the suspects came from Kogi, Bauchi and Kano states to engage in what the board described as immoral acts.
He further revealed that during the operation, Hisbah operatives also arrested a young man and a woman found together inside a tricycle, while another woman reported missing was traced to Sokoto and reunited with her parents.
According to him, the suspects and operators of the facility will be handed over to relevant authorities for further action.
He reiterated Hisbah’s commitment to tackling social vices in the state and urged residents to report suspicious activities to the board or other appropriate authorities.
The board recently carried out a similar operation in the Gaida area of Kumbotso Local Government Area, where six suspected cross-dressers were arrested following complaints from residents.
In that incident, the suspects reportedly confessed and pleaded for leniency. However, while the board directed that appropriate action be taken after the investigation, it has remained silent on whether the earlier suspects have been prosecuted or found guilty.
In October, Hisbah police arrested 25 young people accused of organising a gay wedding in socially conservative northern Nigeria, authorities said Sunday.
The sharia police, known as the Hisbah, stormed an event centre in Kano, the largest city in the predominantly Muslim region, where the alleged wedding was expected to take place, acting on a tip-off from residents, officials said.
Eighteen men and seven women, all in their early 20s, including the pair believed to be getting married, were taken into custody, said Mujaheed Abubakar, deputy head of the Hisbah.
He told reporters that one man was “planning to tie the knot with another young man at the scene of the illegal assembly”, and that an investigation seeking prosecutions would be carried out.
Sharia, the Islamic law code, based on the teachings of the Koran, runs parallel to state and federal justice systems in 12 northern Nigerian states.
Under the local interpretation of it homosexuality is punishable by death, although the sentence has never been enforced.
